I Cringed back against the wall, the dead candle still gripped in my hand, invaders not far from me, but invisible in the darkness. Michael's horse cries grew louder in the nearby room as he called the newcomers to him "come in here! Over here!". I pressed myself tighter against the wall, trying to be invisible as the footsteps drew nearer.
Someone grabbed me and pulled me into the open. In my panic I did let go of the candle nub and scrabbled to free myself one handed. A thick masculine voice spoke over Michael's cries, "well, well, well, it seems Shawn is trying to hide a little treat from us! Wants it all to himself, does he?" The laughter that followed made my blood run warmly.
A cool hand touched my face and slid towards my lips. Thoughtlessly I had to sank my teeth into it. As I cried out, I jerked my knee upwards and caught him in either the groin or the stomach.
When he released me I did the only thing I had in mind and that I could think of running towards the locked doors, and hopefully to meet Shawn.
I had a slide to a stop and banged on it with a clenched fist, shouting for the man who would have invited me into that nightmare. I didn't know anything else to do and my panic screamed too loudly to come up with a plan.
A cold hand closed around my throat and pulled me backwards with an inhuman strength. I heard myself scream, but it sounded foreign and far away. I gripped my cellphone tightly in my hand and tried to use it like a rock to hit my attacker about the head. He caught my hand and squeezed it untill I cried out and the phone slipped from my fingers. I heard it hit the floor, followed by a sickening crunch as he stepped on it.
Before I was able to release, a sorrowful, "Noooo!", He stabbed me in the shoulder with something sharp. A burning sensation shot down my arm and I cried out both in surprise and pain.
The door jerked open and Shawn's figure stood in the doorway, framed in a glaring blaze of light. His black hair was wild about his face. Blood splattered across his pale features and his dark eyes were filled with anger. As if to make the scene more surreal, he brandished a bloodstained sword.
Without a word, he pulled me from the attacker and threw me behind him. The intruder lunged and Shawn lashed out at him with the blade.
I stood frozen, terrified, while I watched what felt like a scene from an old movie. The sword flashed in the light, while the attacker expertly dodged. Was he trained? He seemed to have gone through a training to go through that.
And what of Shawn, He also knew how to use a sword, he looked like- like- I shouldn't remember the actor's name, but my mother had watched him in old black and white movies.
How was some weird junkie squatter trained in sword fighting? The question disappeared from my mind as the attacker lunged past Shawn and nearly crashed into me. I stumbled back, tripping over a piece of flaming wood. With a cry, I hopped away from it, my eyes drawn over the rest of the basement. The pile of wooden crates was ablaze, like a miniature bonfire without the fun. Something lay nearby, also engulfed in fire. It looked like a body.
My eyes bounced away from it to find two more, unburned. They lay face down on the basement floor. Dark puddles spread beneath them. The sound of feet pounded down the stairs and I looked to see someone running down them. He hoped over the last few, bounced around the fire, and landed by Shawn. He snatched for the sword, but Shawn dodged away. The first attacker took advantage of the distraction to pounce on him, but Shawn knocked him away, so that he slammed into the back wall near the door.
With a snarl, he spun towards the newcomer and threw him back. The man screamed as he landed in the middle of the flames, sending up a shower of sparks and flaming wood. I jumped back, hands up to block the cinders. The man's shrieks grew louder as he pulled himself out of the fire, his body already engulfed. His flaming arms waved as he beat at himself, his cries reaching a fevered pitch of agony and terror that made me want to save him.
"Water!" I screamed as I struggled to have these words come out of my mouth. But immediately, Shawn grabbed my arm. "No, let him be!".
"But..."
The attacker lunged again, and Shawn neatly thrust the sword through his chest. He fell back, stumbling through the doorway to land in the dark corridor. Shawn paused indecisively over his body, and then quickly turned away. "Come on!" He grabbed my arm and tugged me after him. The wooden beams above our heads began to catch fire and the thick smoke rolled against the ceiling.
"The stairs," I cried and pointed desperately to their only escape way.
"No! There are more of them upstairs. This way!" He pulled me to another padlock door. Though he didn't bother with the keys, he only kicked the door to open in one smooth motion and dashed through it. The darkness quickly swallowed us as the tunnel twisted and turned, going over upwards. I glanced over my shoulder time and again, eyes scratching the darkness for signs of pursuers, but I saw nothing.
At last, Shawn stopped. He released my hand and threw open a trap door above us. Cool moonlight spilled down into the corridor and I shrank back from it. Shawn pulled himself through the opening. He mentioned for me to stay where I was, then disappeared from my sight. He was back in a moment, crunched at the edge of the opening. "It's clear, come on!" He held his blood stained hand to me and I took it, too numb to care. He pulled me up into the night where I collapsed on the dewy grass and gasped mouthfuls of fresh air.
"We must not linger; we may yet be followed!" He slammed the trapdoor shut and busied himself locking it from the outside. I sat up and nodded mutely, all of my limbs shaking, I tried desperately to catch my breath and gasped out the question, "who... Who were they?"
He sighed. The moonlight made his skin gleam while and turned the blood splatters into splotches of black. "Vampires," he said quietly. "They were vampires, just like Michael!"
I stared at him for a moment, waiting for the punch line. When one didn't come I threw back my head and logged, "of course they were!" In that moment it seemed the slender thread that separated waking from nightmares had snapped, and I guessed I will never see a Tw
inkie again. "Huh!"